'Dietland' by Sarai Walker: EW review

If Amy Schumer turned her subversive feminist sketches into a novel, dark on the inside but coated with a glossy, palatable sheen, it would probably look a lot like Dietland—a thrilling, incendiary manifesto disguised as a beach read.

Plum Kettle is not supposed to be fat. Her real life will begin once she finally gets her stomach stapled and becomes thin. Meanwhile, Plum trudges through her days, counting calories and trying to remain unseen. But after she notices a girl in combat boots following her, she’s thrust into a collective of fierce women working to shatter the idea that the fairer sex needs to be just that: slick, skinny, beautiful, bangable. At the same time, a terrorist group dubbed “Jennifer” is wreaking havoc on the world: Rapists are dropped from planes. A kidnapped imam calls for men to pour acid in their eyes instead of forcing women to cover up.

Dietland’s world is a familiar replica of our own. Frat boys still chant No means yes! Yes means anal!, but following Jennifer’s example, sorority girls start to fight back. It’s a giddy revenge fantasy that will shake up your thinking and burrow under your skin, no matter its size. A